No pictures today...

...just boring words! Here are my random thoughts:

In less than 24 hours the kids and I will be on an airplane headed to the States. We have what I hope will be an excellent packing strategy: we are each filling 1 small suitcase which is being packed into a larger suitcase. This means we can fill 3 large suitcases full of stuff to bring back to Taiwan. I hope that will be enough space - seriously! While we are in the States Anna will have her birthday (I plan to buy all of her gifts while there.). Ethan has outgrown ALL of his clothes so needs a whole new wardrobe, I will be resupplying my craft room and picking up a few new bits of clothing, etc., etc.

I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival in Taiwan of a sort of old friend. Our husbands work together, our families moved to Virginia within 1 day of each other and they were supposed to be moving here tomorrow. However, last week my friend discovered she has breast cancer so the move is cancelled. I have to say I am sad for me. She is one of those people everybody loves - full of life. I was looking forward to spending time with her again. But of course that is all very selfish. Of course I am more sad for my friend who is facing some major stuff. Scary times.

The weather has been perfect here lately. Well, perfect if you love to spend your days in the pool, which I do. It is hot and sunny. The air mattresses are being put to good use, and the squirt guns are getting a bit of use too!

The gardener was here today and he made me very happy. Most of the flowers I've planted have been languishing and I had all but given up on them. The gardener speaks only about 5 words of English, but today he managed to communicate to me that: 1) next time I buy flowers I should let him plant them, 2) some of my flowers were not getting enough sun. If I would give him permission to cut off a couple of tree branches they would get sun. "More beautiful", he said. No problem! Cut away. He pulled weeds, pruned everything I've planted, and watered. I THOUGHT he was pruning and throwing his cuttings, which made me happy. But when he left and I went out to look around I was shocked to see that he had planted MANY of his cuttings, including 2 pieces of a rose bush. I cannot wait to see if these things will grow. My expectation is that they will, I mean, he makes his living as a gardener so he probably knows what he is doing. I cannot wait to see what happens! And then...I found that he added in some news plants! Things I hadn't bought. I don't know what they are or where they came from, but I am reasonably sure they will flower. I told Eric the gardener is my new best friend. Then I changed my mind and said I may have to marry the gardener. That is how happy all of this made me! Ok, so I won't marry him, but...WOW!

Tomorrow Eric is taking the kids and the dogs to the beach. I asked Jacqueline not to come. I plan (hope) to sleep during the day. I have been 100% unsuccessful sleeping on airplanes in the past so this time my plan is not to try to sleep. I will sleep first. We are leaving late at night so the kids ought to sleep. I have downloaded some new movies onto my iPad which I plan to watch while the kids sleep. Eric even bought me BOSE noise canceling headphones for this purpose! (The cheap headphones I used in the past were useless in the airplane. The roar of the engines made it impossible to hear the movies.).

So I think I'm set. I hope so! Haven't packed the gizmo which allows me to load photos from my camera to my iPad for blogging purposes. I would do that right now but it's 1:22 a.m. And Eric is sleeping and he probably wouldn't appreciate me turning on lights and rummaging around for gizmos.. Hopefully I remember to rummage tomorrow.